PERKASIE — The width of a goalpost may have been all that separated the Pennridge and Pennsbury football teams Friday night, but that was enough for the Rams to move on to the District One Class AAAA semifinals.

Sixth-seeded Pennsbury’s game-tying extra point with 1:47 left in the fourth quarter was no good after hitting the left upright, while a final-minute, fourth down sack by Mike Class allowed No. 3 Pennridge to hold off the Falcons 28-27 in the district quarterfinals at Poppy Yoder Field.

“After seeing that kick hit off of that, my heart dropped. I just didn’t know what to do,” Class said. “It just feels great. Moving on, we got history right here. And it feels great.”

Class also rushed for 149 yards and two touchdowns on 24 carries as the Rams (11-1) won their 10th straight and advanced to host No. 7 Spring-Ford in the semis. Spring-Ford knocked off No. 2 Ridley 28-26 Friday.

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That semifinal contest will be 1 p.m. Saturday, since both teams have games scheduled on Thanksgiving Day. Pennridge takes on Quakertown — with a win earning the Rams the outright Suburban One League Continental Conference title — while Spring-ford is set to face Phoenixville in a PAC-10 matchup.

“We’re very excited. We have the Quakertown game on Thanksgiving Day and then we’re going right back and playing against Spring-Ford,” Pennridge’s Kyle Bigam said. “That’s like a football player’s dream playing back-to-back games in one weekend.”

Pennridge led the Falcons 28-7 at 7:45 in the third quarter after Bigam turned a short pass from quarterback Alex Krivda into a 25-yard touchdown. Pennsbury (9-3), however, posted the next 20 points, pulling to within 28-27 after Shawn Pepper broke away for a 44-yard touchdown run at 1:47 in the fourth.

But after Pepper’s score, the extra point kick by Mikhail Kniaziewicz — who had made the previous three — connected with the left goalpost and deflected away, leaving the SOL National champs trailing by one.

Yet the drama did not end there. Pennsbury recovered its onside kick at the Pennridge 47 with 1:45 left. And after allowing the Falcons touchdowns on their previous three drives, the Rams defense finally came up with a stop, as Class sacked quarterback Breon Clark on 4nd-and-4 from the 41 to seal the victory.

“It was a roller coaster ride at the end there,” Pennridge coach Randy Cuthbert said. “Going from being up a couple scores and then you have some bad things happen, they get some momentum and you’re in a game. They miss an extra point and you’re excited and they onside kick and get it.

“You had the feeling it was going to come down to the wire no matter what. So our mentality was that we were just going to just keep coming and coming and then play to the final bell. Hopefully, we’d come out on top.”

The Rams are now in the District One 4A semifinals for the first time since 2004, although that year Pennridge needed just one win to reach the round — a 14-6 victory over Ridley in the quarters — since the district postseason only consisted on eight teams then. The Class AAAA playoffs has been a 16-team field since 2006.

Pepper led the Pennsbury in rushing — 70 yards and a score on 13 carries — and receiving — three catches for 37 yards — as the Falcons came up just short of reaching the district semis for a second straight season. Clark finished 7 of-12 passing for 103 yards and a touchdown and also scored on a one-yard run to make it 28-14 in the final minute of the third.

Krivda went 6-of-10 passing for 89 yards with one touchdown and one interception. Bigam paced the Rams with four catches for 68 yards and a score.

After leading 14-7 at halftime, Class added to the Pennridge advantage less than three minutes into the third, racing into the end zone from 69 yards out at 9:32.

“I just got the pitch and I ran into a lot of kids. And then I took a quick glance to my right and I saw a lane and I just took the lane” Class said.

The Rams appeared to take full control after recovering Pennsbury’s fumble on the ensuing kickoff, then going ahead 28-7 on Krivda’s 25-yard touchdown pass to Bigam.

“It was like a little screen in the middle and everything and I saw that if I beat the one guy that was around my ankles I could get to the edge and get in,” Bigam said.

But Pennsbury made it 28-14 after a Ryon Mose interception of Krivda, with Clark crossing the goal line from a yard out with 24 seconds remaining in the third.

The Rams’ advantage then became 28-21 at 6:12 in the fourth as Daquan Mack capped of the Falcons’ 57-yard, 10-play drive with his one-yard touchdown.

“It seems like in the second half – I don’t know anything about numbers – but it just seems like we got penalties at bad times that put us in longer-yardage situations that we didn’t want to be in,” said Cuthbert of the Rams’ offense. “We were trying to get first downs and run the clock, but you got to get time off that clock in those situations. That’s got to be priority No. 1.”

Starting at its own 14 with 4:24 left after forcing Pennridge to go three-and-out, Pennsbury needed just six plays to reach the end zone – Pepper make it a one-point contest when he scored from 44 yards out.

In the first quarter, Pennridge took a 6-0 lead on the opening drive of the game, as John Kim’s 16-yard touchdown run at 4:04 ended a 15-play, 70 yard drive that lasted 7:54.

The Falcons answered on their first series, going up 7-6 after Clark’s 27-yard touchdown pass to Hose with 44 seconds left in the quarter.

The Rams went back ahead at 4:35 in the second on a nine-yard touchdown run by Class. Krivda found Bigam on the two-point conversion to make the advantage 14-7.